Source: Daily_Mail
Chief executioner Kenyon's Chelsea fate was sealed after Scolari row
Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon finally threw in the towel on Wednesday, having been effectively a lame duck since February, when he played no part in the sacking of manager Luiz Felipe Scolari.
Kenyon found out about the Brazilian’s departure while on holiday in Barbados. It was a huge snub for the £3million-a-year best-paid chief executive in the Barclays Premier League, who wanted the World Cup-winning coach to be given more time, and there has been widespread speculation since then that his days at Stamford Bridge were numbered.
Sportsmail was the first to report two days after Scolari’s departure that the isolated Kenyon — who had been executioner-in-chief of the three previous Chelsea bosses — would be a casualty himself sooner or later.
That day arrived on Wednesday, following what is understood to be one major row too many with Russian director Eugene Tenenbaum — the eyes and ears of owner Roman Abramovich at Stamford Bridge — before Tuesday’s Champions League game against Porto.
The sharp-suited Kenyon was his usual suave self at the match, giving no indication even to his close friends that he would be quitting less than 24 hours later or that anything was wrong with his running of Chelsea. Remarkably, nor had he on any occasion throughout his uneasy tenure during the last seven months.
But the differences with Tenenbaum and, through him, Abramovich — who wants a Champions League trophy above anything — were too many for a CEO stripped of the influence that title should carry.
It is likely that chief operating officer Ron Gourlay, who worked with Kenyon at Manchester United and is already responsible for a lot of Chelsea’s business dealings, will step up to the top role, but without the title or the powerbase that Kenyon enjoyed before falling out of favour with the Russians.
Significantly, Gourlay, along with chairman Bruce Buck, represented Chelsea at last week’s Premier League clubs meeting.
The highly-ambitious Simon Greenberg, the Affairs Director since returning from a management leadership course at Harvard University, is likely to see how he fits into a Chelsea regime without close confidant Kenyon before deciding his own future.
Despite the Scolari fall-out being a hammer blow to his standing, Kenyon had continued to run the club on a daily basis, even concluding a new kit sponsorship deal with Samsung.
But with his powerbase marginalised even further at the start of the season, when Frank Arnesen was promoted to take charge of player recruitment, it was only a matter of time before his departure was announced.
That announcement arrived first in an email to staff, shortly before the news went public that he was standing down as chief executive — a post he had held for five-and-a-half years since his controversial recruitment from United — from October 31.
Kenyon told Chelsea employees: ‘I want to reiterate what a pleasure it has been to work with you all. We have achieved great things and you should all be proud of that.
‘You will continue to see me involved with Chelsea as I am staying on as a non-executive director. I am sure I will catch up with many of you over the coming days. I would like to wish you all the very best for the future.’
Kenyon’s new role sees him representing Chelsea on various UEFA and European Clubs Association committees, but that will be nothing much more than a cosmetic exercise and a way of staggering his undoubted pay-off.
His tasks will include leading Chelsea’s appeal on their FIFA transfer ban for allegedly inducing French teenager Gael Kakuta to Stamford Bridge from Lens in 2007, which is not believed to have had anything to do with Kenyon’s departure.
More likely, academy chief Arnesen, despite his growing relationship with manager Carlo Ancelotti, will be the fall guy if Chelsea are unsuccessful in their FIFA fight.
In a press release issued by the club, Kenyon said: ‘When I joined Chelsea it was an incredible challenge and, together with all the staff, the players, the board and Roman, I think we have really built a club in a relatively short space of time that can be in the forefront of European football for many years to come. I intend to take a little time off before considering what I do next, but I am certain I have at least one major challenge left in me.’
Buck said: ‘Peter has done a fantastic job for Chelsea and has been absolutely central to the success on and off the field we have had during that time. Without his football knowledge and business acumen Chelsea would not be where we are today.’
For all Kenyon’s undoubted achievements establishing ‘Brand Chelsea’, the most abiding memory will be of him — in the slickest of suits — leading up the Chelsea players in the Moscow rain to receive their runners-up medals after the 2008 Champions League defeat to Manchester United.
